posted at 1:21 pm on November 2, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

And those are the kinder thoughts that the editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal had for Barack Obama in their lead editorial yesterday. Those conclusions refer to Obama’s overall performance on the economy and foreign policy. When they get down to specifics on Benghazi, the anger pulses through every sentence (via Twitchy):

The official explanation for the inadequate security? This administration didn’t want to “offend the sensibilities” of the new radical Islamic regime which American and British arms had so recently helped install in Libya.

The official explanation for why Obama administration officials watched the attack unfold for seven hours, refusing repeated requests to send the air support and relief forces that sat less than two hours away in Italy? Silence.

An open discussion of these issues, of course, would lead to difficult questions about the wisdom of underwriting and celebrating the so-called Arab Spring revolts in the first place. While the removal of tyrants can be laudable, the results show a disturbing pattern of merely installing new tyrannies – theocracies of medieval mullahs who immediately start savaging the rights of women (including the basic right to education) and who are openly hostile to American interests.

When Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney promptly criticized the security failures in Benghazi, the White House and its lapdog media jumped all over him for another “gaffe,” for speaking out too promptly and too strongly. Prompt and strong action from the White House on Sept. 11 might have saved American lives, as well as America’s reputation as a nation not to be messed with. Weakness and dithering and flying to Las Vegas the next day for celebrity fund-raising parties are somehow better?

Yes, you read that right — a major Las Vegas newspaper just ripped Obama for coming to Las Vegas rather than doing his job. They conclude that a vote for Obama would be like, er … well, I can’t improve on their analogy:

These behaviors go far beyond “spin.” They amount to a pack of lies. To return to office a narcissistic amateur who seeks to ride this nation’s economy and international esteem to oblivion, like Slim Pickens riding the nuclear bomb to its target at the end of the movie “Dr. Strangelove,” would be disastrous.

Bear in mind that editorials typically come from a conference among several editors at the newspaper. One will usually draft an essay, and then it gets discussed, modified, and redrafted to find a consensus among the editorial board as to tone and direction. This represents the LVRJ’s center, apparently.

With Nevada in play, and Clark County one of the keys to Democratic victory, this attack from one of the state’s most important newspapers is very bad news for Obama, especially this close to Election Day. The best that Team Obama can hope is that what’s said in Vegas stays in Vegas.

Blowback

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Comments

The Blaze has a list of the 28 newspapers that, four years ago endorsed barack, but have changed their endorsement to President Romney this election.

Each has a short blurb from their endorsement. Many are just as scathing as the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s.

DuctTapeMyBrain on November 2, 2012 at 1:33 PM

This would be a bigger burger, but appears from 2 diff sources they supported MCsquish and Angle in 08 and 10, so def right leaner as earlier poster commented…but nonetheless, brutally accurate and just shared out on my social media…

Survival kit contents check. In them you’ll find: one forty-five caliber automatic; two boxes of ammunition; four days’ concentrated emergency rations; one drug issue containing antibiotics, morphine, vitamin pills, pep pills, sleeping pills, tranquilizer pills; one miniature combination Russian phrase book and Bible; one hundred dollars in rubles; one hundred dollars in gold; nine packs of chewing gum; one issue of prophylactics; three lipsticks; three pair of nylon stockings. Shoot, a fella’ could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.

Still patiently waiting for all of that new public opinion data showing that Dear Leader got a bump from the hurricane. So far, only one outfit (a Washington DC newspaper that endorsed O’bamna) has released such a “poll”, and they haven’t updated it in nearly 3 days now.

Usually when that happens, it’s an indicator that they were not getting the same followup results on subsequent days that they got the first day. In other words, O’bamna’s “approval” of how he handled the hurricane most likely dropped sharpy from 10/30 to 11/1.

The fact that absolutely no other “pollster” has even bothered to poll this question speaks volumes.

LVRJ is center-right, and tends to be anti-teacher’s union and sometimes anti-school district. Its endorsements vary, because of lefty columnists employed there. LVRJ also owns The Sun, which is their main lefty-slant outlet.

President Barack Obama, locked in a tight race with Republican challenger Mitt Romney, has so far received praise for his handling of storm relief. But scenes of angry storm victims could affect the U.S. political campaign with Election Day four days away.

“They forgot about us,” said Theresa Connor, 42, describing her Staten Island neighborhood as having been “annihilated.” “And Bloomberg said New York is fine. The marathon is on,” she said, referring to Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Rising seawater flooded lower Manhattan, much of which still lacked power and subway service on Friday, while midtown and uptown Manhattan were close to normal.

Fury has been escalating throughout New York at Bloomberg’s decision to proceed with the marathon on Sunday, vowing the event – which attracts more than 40,000 runners – would not divert any resources storm victims.

“I just walked past four huge generators. Those could be put to use for people who need them,” said Marjorie Dial, a tourist from Oregon who was shocked to see the generators in Central Park, where the marathon finishes. “What they’ve discovered on Staten Island should have been the tipping point – the bodies.”

Boy…Mozza is really running out of bad news for Obama when he must dig up these kinds of trivialities.

The way things currently are, it will be interesting to see if he will find any poll at all to gloat about before the election. Over at the Republican-leaning, I see lots of Blue arrows pointing towards the sky in the RCP poll tracking tables and almost no Red ones.

So are you are back to GOTV and Early Voting as the bombshell (atomic?) win for Obama, or are you still stuck on the hurricane which isn’t going to affect voting that much in swing states.

It’s all common sense.

Being strongly ahead in early voting in OH, all the battleground state polls being released showing Obama ahead, the good economic/jobs news (with more to come tomorrow), and the RCP national average showing Obama ahead all show Obama has the momentum in the final week. And, yes, the hurricane seems to be the moment that fate intervened on Obama’s behalf. Romney lost his momentum and never got it back and Obama started rising in the national polls. Add in Christie treating Obama like The Messiah, and it’s pretty easy to figure out he’s winning re-election.

gumbyandpokey on November 1, 2012 at 11:26 AM

I’m so saving this prediction to beat the plasticine Gumby upside the head tomorrow and going forward.

Say… You wouldn’t be a re-juvenated crrr6 would you.

She was pretty bold with a few predictions like “This will never come back to bite me”

It has come to this. A democrat has to be utterly devoid of talent in order for a newspaper to level any fair and well-deserved criticism of him/her. Welcome to the real world, Mr. Obama, where you are judged on your outcomes rather than your intentions. Look around you….everything you touch turns into sh!t. The economy, the foreign affairs of our nation, defense, citizen relations, everything—it’s a shambles. Are you proud of yourself? Well, are you punk????

These behaviors go far beyond “spin.” They amount to a pack of lies. To return to office a narcissistic amateur who seeks to ride this nation’s economy and international esteem to oblivion, like Slim Pickens riding the nuclear bomb to its target at the end of the movie “Dr. Strangelove,” would be disastrous.

Aside from Ohypocrite telling corporations and others that their days of partying in Vegas are over while clearly they aren’t for him or government employees under his watch, I’d bet that the casinos suffer every time Bammie visits the city and they’d prefer it if he just stayed away. That editorial was one awesome shot right between those disdainful Obamuh eyes.

It’s a great newspaper and, normally, pretty unbiased and extremely informative. It makes the NY Times look like a joke. It’s always a good read. It may finally be the old, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”

It’s a great newspaper and, normally, pretty unbiased and extremely informative. It makes the NY Times look like a joke. It’s always a good read. It may finally be the old, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”